Of Rewards for apprehending or killing Criminals.



Let us now inquire, whether it be advantageous to society, to set a price on 

the head of a criminal, and so to make of every citizen an executioner? If 

the offender hath taken refuge in another state, the sovereign encourages 

his subjects to commit a crime, and to expose themselves to a just 

punishment; he insults that nation, and authorises the subjects to commit on 

their neighbours similar usurpations. If the criminal still remain in his 

own country, to set a price upon his head is the strongest proof of the 

weakness of the government. He who has strength to defend himself will not 

purchase the assistance of another. Besides, such an edict confounds all the 

ideas of virtue and morality, already too wavering in the mind of man. At 

one time treachery is punished by the laws, at another encouraged. With one 

hand the legislator strengthens the ties of kindred and friendship, and with 

the other rewards the violation of both. Always in contradiction with 

himself, now he invites the suspecting minds of men to mutual confidence, 

and now he plants distrust in every heart. To prevent one crime he gives 

birth to a thousand. Such are the expedients of weak nations, whose laws are 

like temporary repairs to a tottering fabric. On the contrary, as a nation 

becomes more enlightened, honesty and mutual confidence become more 

necessary, and are daily tending to unite with sound policy. Artifice, 

cabal, and obscure and indirect actions are more easily discovered, and the 

interest of the whole is better secured against the passions of the 

individual.



Even the times of ignorance, when private virtue was encouraged by public 

morality, may afford instruction and example to more enlightened ages, But 

laws which reward treason excite clandestine war and mutual distrust, and 

oppose that necessary union of morality and policy which is the foundation 

of happiness and universal peace.